Basically this is going to be a build that my two boys are going to attempt with Dad footing the bill, lol. I am an electrical engineer who is a weekend geek, but haven't really attempted a build of this sort (I've done some overclocking, but not to the level of you all). The kids are doing all the research with me pointing the way, they are 8 and 15. I just need to be a few steps ahead of them right now. The main focus is gaming, CAD drawings, some video and getting into the wonderful world of OC'ing. I had received some good advice previously from peeps on this site and figured you may be able to point out something that I am missing or help me solidify the hardware for this build.

If you want the best water cooling check out
www.Dangerden.com
you'll need a pump, a radiator,a reservoir, fittings, the waterblocks for the CPU and the GPU and the pipes.( I might be forgetting something)
This will cost hundreds of extra dollars(you will also need a special watercooling case) but you seem to be going all out with your build and was thinking you should have this option as well. A closed watercooling loop is dead silent and yields the best cooling and overclocking potential that you can get with your money.

The rest of your picks - well you've chosen the best out of the best so not much room for improvement here

Looks great, I wish my dad was as cool as you. As for the CPU cooler the Noctura is great, but if you want water look at Corsair's Hydro series (H50 to H100)

+1 I wish mine was too But I love him the way he is now.If you want a WC setup, it better to get a Full fledged WC setup instead of the Hydro Series. Granted the H100 is better then the NH-D14 by 1-2C but it's nothing compared to 'real' WC setups.But the NH-D14 is the best air cooler I know and it can only be beaten by a full fledged WC setup.

I do have a few suggestions1. Get the X79 Extreme6/GB instead of R4E. You wouldn't need the R4E for a gaming rig since it's more OC orientated. Plus the GameBlaster should provide a very good Sound card and LAN connection.2. You wouldn't really need 32GB of RAM. I think 16GB should be enough but there really isn't any harm in having 32GB of RAM (except maybe toward your wallet )3. I Suggest you wait for a third party cooler like the TwinFrozr III variant of the GTX680. They usually provide more features and those TFIII coolers are excellent.

Other then that I Think you're good to go

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

Because you are going to try to fill the RAM slots you sould in my opinion go with the self contained liquid solution. The Intel solution looks very nice if you want to pay the extra for the Intel name. The Antec H2O 620 or the Corsair H60 would either one fit your needs very well. The Corsair H100 is the best as a pure cooler but unless you are going to push the overclock then there is no need.

I will grant that some air coolers give better numbers on pure CPU temp readings but remember that even the stock cooler from Intel keeps the chip cool enough to run with no issues and mild overclocking. While the self contained may not get those lower numbers they still easily keep the CPU cool enough to work well and give the advantage of being easier to work with as well as not restricting RAM choices. I can tell you that I have a lot of different high end air coolers that all sit in the closet and my systems all use self contained coolers.

Would you be willing to use full water cooling? You sound like you are pretty good at putting things together, so I feel fairly confident you can do it.....but would you feel comfortable doing such a thing?

A good solid build. I'd recommend two kits of 2x4GB Samsung's. Sometimes a promo code will take 10% - 15% off. They overclock amazingly, and 16GB is all you'd need.

The HD 7970 vastly outperforms the GTX 680 in compute tasks (Nvidia purposely made the GTX 680 a dedicated gaming card). The HD 7970 competes very well against the GTX 680 in games, so either works well for gaming. The HD 7970 should be considered if you're going to do some serious CAD work, because the GTX 680 won't cut it. The GTX 570 does better than the GTX 680.

The HD 7970 vastly outperforms the GTX 680 in compute tasks (Nvidia purposely made the GTX 680 a dedicated gaming card). The HD 7970 competes very well against the GTX 680 in games, so either works well for gaming. The HD 7970 should be considered if you're going to do some serious CAD work, because the GTX 680 won't cut it. The GTX 570 does better than the GTX 680.

Really? Can you share me the link/article about it?

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

A good solid build. I'd recommend two kits of 2x4GB Samsung's. Sometimes a promo code will take 10% - 15% off. They overclock amazingly, and 16GB is all you'd need.

The HD 7970 vastly outperforms the GTX 680 in compute tasks (Nvidia purposely made the GTX 680 a dedicated gaming card). The HD 7970 competes very well against the GTX 680 in games, so either works well for gaming. The HD 7970 should be considered if you're going to do some serious CAD work, because the GTX 680 won't cut it. The GTX 570 does better than the GTX 680.

I will disagree, at high end photo and movie work the 32 gig will come in handy. As for the 7970 vs the 680, while the 7970 looks great in benchmarks AMD is plagued by the fact that the driver support and the apps is just not there as well as nVidia. With a 6 core hyper threaded CPU and 32 gigs of RAM I am not sure the video will add all that much anyway, your system should easily handle the work load on pure CPU.

If your program has proper support for AMD cards with GPU Compute then he is correct the 7970 is the better choice, But if that is not your major area of concern and the video card is for gaming then the 680 is a sure win.